The Galactic Tribunal
by Father Hulk
Summary: This is my interpretation of what happens when Samus arrives back from the B.S.L. station in Fusion.


**The Galactic Tribunal**

By Father Hulk 

**A/N: **_This is just a quick story about what I think happened after Metroid Fusion. Enjoy!_

The senators, Federation officials, galactic policemen, and interplanetary ambassadors slowly filed into the huge trial chamber. The chamber was set up very much like an amphitheater: the room was circular, and multiple levels of seats were carved into the walls. Each individual booth contained seats and a microphone for the official to voice objections or opinions. The shape of the room grew narrower from top to bottom, and on the floor was a large chair, and a large dais for a judge and jury to sit. The portions of wall in between each row of seating was transparent, filled with water, and contained various exotic sea life.

"Outrageous," "Unforgivable," "High treason!" were some of the mutterings passing back and forth as each individual found their appropriate seat and got settled.

Once all the seats were filled, a large man in a black suit marched in and bellowed, "All rise to welcome the Galactic Tribunal!" Everyone obediently stood up, and in marched the seven members of the Galactic Tribunal: a being from each of the branches of the Allied Planets for Peace Alliance. They shuffled to their seats on the dais and sat down.

"Remain standing as the high judge enters!" The black-suited man commanded. In front of the dais, a circular hole in the floor opened, and, borne up on a mechanical lift, the high judge entered the chamber. He looked quite young, although he was very old. He wore a black robe with the Federation emblem on it; he had gray hair that hung down past his shoulders, giving the appearance of a mane. His head was bowed and his eyes were shut until the lift brought him fully into the room, and then he looked up, raised his hand and commanded, "Be seated." The room obeyed.

The judge marched to his podium and cleared his throat. Then he began to speak, and it resonated throughout the whole amphitheater, though he had no microphone or speech aid. "Members of the Federation, friends of allied nations: we are here to pass judgment on the bounty hunter, Samus Aran, for the destruction of the Biologic Space Lab and the destruction of planet SR388. Bring in the accused!"

A motorized door at the back of the room rose up, and a girl was marched in; she had long, flowing blond hair and as of this moment, a pale complexion. She was wearing a loose-fitting Federation Detainee uniform, which was gray and covered her from neck to foot. She was led into the room by an alien guard, and he sat her down in the chair, removed the chain link from around his wrist and secured it to the arm of the chair, and marched out.

Her arrival was met with angry words and booing from the gathered people. One senator even snarled, "Kill the traitor!"

"Silence!" boomed the high judge. He then gazed menacingly down at the girl. "State your full name."

"Samus Aran," the girl spat bitterly.

"Miss Aran, do you understand the purpose of your being here today?"

"Yes I do," Samus replied, looking up. "But I don't think that I did…"

"Quiet!" the high judge snapped, cutting her off. "What were you going to say? You don't think you did anything wrong! May I remind you, Miss Aran, that you destroyed an entire planet, as well as a space station that cost us trillions to build! Do you honestly think you can defend that?"

"Yes!" Samus answered heatedly.

"Oh, well then by all means, bounty hunter," the high judge scoffed, rolling his eyes and waving his hand towards her, "enlighten us."

"The planet was SR388, and in case any of you here didn't know, it was a dangerous and volatile ecosystem."

The ambassador from Planet Zebes switched on his microphone. "With all due respect, bounty hunter, Zebes is no better. Why haven't you destroyed that, too?" he asked with a sneer.

"Because there was nothing there that could escape into the universe at large."

"Are you insane? Have you forgotten all about the Metroid crisis?"

"The Metroids were all exterminated from Zebes," Samus snapped back. "And again, you're welcome."

The Zebes ambassador snorted and sat back in his seat.

"The Metroids came from SR388, if anybody knew a damn thing about this side of the galaxy," Samus went on. "I went there, _on this federation's orders_, to completely eradicate them. And I did! The Metroids were dangerous and could have easily wiped out the universe. For all I know, there could have been more of them breeding in the jungles after I left!"

"And so that's why you chose to destroy the planet?" asked a Federation member from the seventh tier.

"Partially, yes," Samus answered. "But also, there was…"

"Excuse me for a moment, if I may," interrupted a science officer from Biologic, "But if you recall, your life was saved by one of the very Metroids you deem to be so evil." A murmur arose from the gathered. "How can you claim you destroyed the planet to exterminate remaining Metroids, when you owe your life to one?"

"I agree! It doesn't add up!" seconded a being from a distant planet.

"Well there's more to it, if you'll let me finish," Samus said.

"Go on," said the high judge.

"We discovered a new life form on SR388, called the X. It was a parasite that killed its host and copied its cell structure. They were intelligent and multiplied very rapidly. They had gotten onto the B.S.L. station and killed all the crew members."

"I object," said one of the members of the Tribunal. "We have security camera footage of you unleashing your beam energy onto a scientist in the depths of the station. We'd like to present that recording as Exhibit A." The lights dimmed, and a huge hologram appeared in the center of the room. It indeed showed Samus rushing up to a staff member, who was working at a computer console, and blowing him away, before there was static and then nothing.

"So, Miss Aran, which was it that killed our workers? This "X", or you? Clearly you can't argue with what we've just seen."

"Your honor, I can explain."

"Really? Can you? Then please do, because I'm very interested to hear how you'll try to discredit something hundreds of people just saw with their own eyes!"

"That scientist was infected with the X parasite. It took over his central nervous system, stole his DNA, and was mimicking him. If more of the security data had been transferred back to HQ, you'd have seen that I battled a huge Core X that emerged from the shell of the man."

"I really beg to differ, Miss Aran. There was no reason for that security camera to stop streaming the data into the Headquarters computers… unless of course it was blown up as well."

"It… must have gotten destroyed in the battle," Samus faltered.

"She's lying!" roared an ambassador.

"She's turned on us and on the Federation!" snarled another.

The high judge raised his hand to silence them, then turned and said, "Miss Aran, you do realize you're giving a horribly weak testimony so far, don't you?"

"You're not giving me time to explain everything!" Samus snapped.

"I frankly don't see what you have left _to _explain, bounty hunter."

"Well if you'll allow me, I'll explain what happened on the space station."

"You have this court's attention." The high judge said simply.

"When I arrived, I heard about a big explosion somewhere on board. Adam told me to…"

"Who?" interrupted the high judge.

Samus faltered again. "My… ship's computer."

One of the tribunal members got up and whispered something in the high judge's ear. The high judge nodded. "Ah yes, Malkovich. I can assure you he would not have made the decision you did."

Samus felt the back of her neck heat up. "It was Adam who told me to destroy the damn station! I can prove it! I have briefing logs!"

The high judge waved his hand. "Whether he did or not is irrelevant now; what is done cannot be thus undone."

"Can I continue now?"

"By all means."

"I went up to the quarantine bay where Biolgic had kept the creatures captured from SR388. The explosion had set them all loose, and I discovered that they were all infected with X parasites. Each time I tried to isolate and exterminate them, they kept multiplying and spreading throughout the entire station. Eventually, one of them even infected my old power suit and turned into a copy of me."

"That's highly ridiculous!" objected one senator from high up. "You mean to imply cloning? No parasite is that intelligent."

"You underestimate the X," Samus responded tersely. "That copy of me, which Adam named the SA-X, almost killed me on several occasions. By the time I had enough strength to fight it, the entire station was infested with the X. That's why I had to destroy the station, as well as SR388. I had to remove all of them completely."

"Yes, but," the high judge said with a sneer, "Before that, we have logs of you violating several directives from your commanding officer." He went to his podium and flipped through a few pages. "Unauthorized disabling of security locks, upgrading weapons without being told to do so…"

Samus's anger was building. "You know, maybe you should tell this court exactly _what_ the Federation was doing on that station."

"That's irrelevant now," the high judge said dismissively. "Let us…"

"No! It's very relevant!" Samus snarled. She looked up at the many levels of seats. "I want all of you here to know that your Galactic Federation was breeding Metroids for use in military applications!"

A quick burst of confused mutterings arose from the gathered, and for the first time, the high judge seemed unsure of what to say.

"That's right!" Samus pressed. "They wanted to use the X and the SA-X for war. They didn't realize how dangerous they were. I can guarantee all of you that you wouldn't be here now if the Federation had been allowed to do this!"

The high judge quickly regained his composure. "Perhaps you would not be so quick to accuse us if you realize that we have more security footage of you in our labs."

"What?" Samus said in disbelief.

Another hologram appeared of Samus laying waste to a Metroid tank with several dozen missiles.

"That wasn't me! That was the SA-X!" Samus cried.

The high judge rolled his eyes. "As was stated before, we have no reason to believe a simple parasite could mimic an entire human being. And according to our final data from that lab, you caused it to be released into the depths of space, throwing away years of research."

"You don't understand!" Samus protested.

"Oh I think we do understand," the high judge interrupted. "We understand that you're a rogue, and that you were in clear violation of Federation directives on several occasions, and you are guilty of treason. I sentence you to…"

The high judge paused suddenly, tilting his head to one side. Then, several members of the gathered began doing the same thing. Samus soon realized why: the glass that held one of the exotic aquariums together was cracking at a rapid rate.

"Oh God, no…" Samus murmured, closing her eyes.

But it was too late. The glass shattered into a million pieces, and the fish contained within began falling. As it fell, the gathered were horrified to witness it undergo a transformation. It grew to five times its size, it sprouted thick, hairy legs and arms, and its head grew bulbous and stretched.

"Clear the room!" The high judge bellowed, and everybody in the room panicked and tried to flee. But the water that spilled out of the tank had shorted out the electricity, and all the mechanical doors slammed shut.

"Doesn't anyone have any weapons!" The high judge cried.

Samus bowed her head. She felt the cold steel of her backup pistol nestled in her shoe. But was it right to help these people? Each and every one of the gathered wanted her either locked up or killed. And besides, it wasn't her fault if one of the fish they selected was a violent breed. Maybe during the confusion, she could escape…

"What's the matter with it!" someone cried, and Samus looked up to see that the fish creature was slowly shifting from solid to blurry, and back again.

_"Dear Lord… it's infected by the X!"_ Samus thought to herself. _"I have no choice…"_

Concentrating her full strength together, she stood up and tore the chain binding her off the chair. She reached into her shoe, seized her pistol, and leapt from the chair onto the dais, sending a few tribunal members scurrying from their chairs.

"Hurry up and shoot it!" The high judge shouted from his hiding place behind the podium.

"I only have one shot," Samus said, looking back. To herself, she said, "Gotta make it count."

"Shoot it in the head! Get to its brain!"

"No…" Samus murmured. "I need to get to its heart." _"There has to be a weak point…_" she thought to herself.

The creature lurched forward and took a massive swing at Samus. She dodged, then jumped on its hand and climbed up onto its head. It was then that the creature did one of its periodic blur shifts, and Samus saw her target: a large X parasite was sitting right behind the back of the neck. She aimed and fired.

The fish creature roared in pain, and then its front split open and a dozen X Parasites flew out and began circling the room, looking for new targets.

"It's the X!" The science officer shouted. "Run for your lives or they'll kill us all!"

Thinking quickly, Samus leapt from the crumpled shell of the monster onto the judge's podium. She spread her arms, raised her head and closed her eyes. The room seemed to darken for a moment, and then all the X flying around paused in mid-air, before rocketing down into Samus. She felt a familiar warmth spread through her.

When they witnessed this, all the people in the room fell silent. The light returned from the room, and people slowly but surely regained their composure.

"What… what did you do?" the high judge asked shakily.

"I absorbed the X so that you all would be saved," Samus replied. "Apparently, that sea creature was brought here from SR388, despite orders from Biologic not to move anything from the station until conclusive analysis was done."

The high judge did not say anything.

"These creatures were all over the space station," Samus said. "Even I couldn't destroy them all. That's why I had to blow it all up. Those X that came out of the creature just now? Those twelve would have become 24, and those would have become 48, and soon this whole planet would be overrun. Do you believe me now?"

The high judge and the tribunal members looked at each other for a few moments, and then the high judge marched up to his podium and picked up his gavel. "This court drops all charges against one bounty hunter, Samus Aran." POUND!

Samus breathed a deep, heaving sigh of relief.

"Your honor, we have just restored the power," said a technician from up at the control panel.

"Good," the high judge said. "This court is dismissed."

As Samus left the trial chamber, she thought of all the things she was going to do now that she was free. There were endless bounties to be won, endless adventures to be had. A dog bounded up to her and barked happily.

"Oh, hey there, puppy," she said, petting it on the head. She continued to walk, but had she looked behind her, she would have noticed that the dog was the slightest bit blurry.

The End 

**© 2006 PDG Network and the St. Eva Church**


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